The
Greenwich and Deptford workhouse opened in 1840 on a 4 acre site at the
east side of
Vanbrugh Hill. Originally designed to
accommodate 650 fit and 200 ill paupers, by 1851 the average number of
inmates was over 1000.

By the 1870s it had become increasingly necessary to
provide medical care and, in 1874, plans were drawn up for a new
infirmary block so that space could be freed up in the south block of
the workhouse for able-bodied inmates.

The Greenwich Union Infirmary opened in 1876 and consisted of two
3-storey pavilions, which could house 400 patients, and a 4-storey
administration block, which also contained staff accommodation.
It had cost £35,000 and occupied a 3-acre site immediately
south of the workhouse.

In 1885 the Board of Guardians raised £14,800 from the
Metropolitan Board of Works so that alterations could be made to the
workhouse and two more infirmary
blocks be built to house about 300 chronically sick inmates. In
1889, a further two blocks for both sexes were added for 250
patients. How bed numbers were split at this stage between
workhouse and infirmary appears a little fluid. By 1891, however.
with a certified accommodation of 538
beds, the infirmary had an average daily occupation of some 380
patients. The overgenerous facilities available for the acutely
ill were contrasted by the permanent state of overcrowding in the
workhouse. Prospective inmates were sent to neighbouring unions
under a reciprocal exhange scheme, and younger inmates were persuaded
to emigrate to the Colonies and to the Dominion of Canada at the
expense of the parish rate-payers. In 1898 the Infirmary was
certified as a Training School for Nurses, with some 40-50 girls in
training. By the turn of the century it was beginning to become a
general hospital with a staff of 150, including a medical officer and
60 nurses of varying grades. The acute beds were open not only to
paupers of the parish but also to those who could afford to pay for
them.

Between 1918 and 1929 the spartan conditions in the Infirmary were
gradually improved; the walls were plastered and central heating and
electrical lighting installed. X-ray and Massage Departments were
established.

In 1927 Princess Mary, Viscountess Lascelles, officially opened the
Woodlands Nurses' Home. In 1928 an operating theatre was
installed.

In 1929 responsibility for the administration of the workhouse and
infirmary was transferred to the LCC, and it was renamed the Greenwich
and Deptford Hospital. By then the workhouse part
contained 846 beds for the chronic sick and the infirmary 645 beds for
acute patients.

In 1930 a ward for
tuberculosis patients was built , as well as a new Out-Patients
Department with a pharmacy, antenatal clinic
and nurses' sick bay facility. In 1931 the Hospital was
renamed St Alfege's Hospital, after Alfege, Archbishop of Canterbury,
who was murdered by Danish pirates at Greenwich in 1012.

By 1944 the Hospital still remained divided into two parts: St
Alfege's
Hospital I (the infirmary) had acute 618 beds and St Alfege's II (the
former workhouse) had 498 beds for
long-stay patients.

In 1948 the Hospital joined the NHS under the control of the South East
Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. It had 553 beds in St
Alfege's I and 284 beds in St Alfege's II.

By 1954 there were 268 beds for acute patients in the southern
(infirmary) buildings and 366 beds for geriatric and long-stay patients
in the northern (workhouse) buildings.
By 1956 the Hospital was experiencing staff shortages and
103
beds had to be closed.

In 1960 the Regional Hospital Board decided that the distinction
between the two St Alfege's Hospitals would cease and that they would
merge into one unit of 605 beds.

As part of the
modernisation of the NHS, a new hospital was planned to replace the
existing one; it was to be designed by the Hospital Design Unit of the
Ministry of Health. Work began in 1965 at the northwest cormer of
the site, which had been cleared of buildings damaged during bombing in
WW2. The plan was to demolish the old
buildings gradually and build the new ones while keeping the
Hospital operational. Many units of the new hospital would be
prefabricated in the factory and assembled on site. Phase 1 of
the project was completed in
1969, Phase 2 by the end of 1970 and Phase 3 by 1972.

The new three-storey Hospital opened in 1972, having cost £6m.
It was renamed Greenwich District Hospital and had 800 beds.

The lower ground floor contained the supply and maintenance departments
for the entire Hospital. All supplies were delivered to this
area, then transported via trolley trains to individual wards and
departments. Waste for disposal was returned by the same means.
The ground floor contained the Out-Patients Department, an
operating theatre and a day ward, and geriatric and psychiatric Day
Hospitals. The wards on the floors above were situated along the
outside walls of the rectangular building, with the service
departments, such as X-ray, pathology laboratories and operating
theatres in the centre, with no natural light. None of the
windows opened and the entire building was ventilated mechanically.
Each floor, except the lower ground floor, had its own kitchen.

Mechanical problems with the innovative trolley conveyor system, the
air-conditioners and the escalators between floors meant they required
regular servicing.

Although the Hospital had been designed to take an extra floor, the
beam spans used were too wide and the sags meant that the corbels were
inadequate. The plan to add a fourth floor was never realised.

During the late 1980s some £6m was spent on removing asbestos
from the voids between the floors.

The Hospital closed in March 2001, with 583 beds. All services
were transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich.

Present
status (February 2008)
The Hospital was demolished in 2006 following its sale to English
Partnerships for £18m. The site is
now a wasteland and is awaiting redevelopment as a housing
complex.
Update: September 2013

It was announced in April 2013 that the site, taken over by the Mayor
of London in 2012, is to be redeveloped by Hadley
Mace into a housing scheme with 645 residences, over half of
which will be 'affordable'. The £225m development will
be known as Greenwich
Square.

A blue hoarding now surrounds the vacant site.

Local
history is illustrated on the hoarding. The message
proclaims 'The changing face of East Greenwich', although the only
thing that has changed so far is that the Hospital was demolished three
years ago.

The site now belongs to the government's national regeneration agency,
English Partnerships.

In
1934 Dr. Mary Walker, a Medical Officer at the Hospital, observed that
the signs and symptoms of myasthenia
gravis, a neuromuscular disorder, were similar to those of
curare poisoning. She discovered that physostigmine,
used as an
antidote for curare poisoning, could also temporarily restore muscle
function in patients with myasthenia gravis. The first case to be
successfully treated by subcutaneous injection was reported in the Lancetin
June 1934. Dr. Walker and others developed the drug so that it
could be taken orally (subcutaneous administration of physostigmine had
serious side-effects). Oral prostigmin, a
synthetic drug closely related chemically and pharmacologically to
physostigmine, is used today in the treatment of
myasthenia gravis.